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Holiday Music Tips With a Twist

November 25, 2008

Religious holidays occur in the context of philosophies favoring the small over the big, the poor over the rich. Accordingly, this report will relegate the usual large and often costly events to an end-of-file roundup. Up front, there will be smaller, less familiar, and less costly events. Also, we are including celebrations by other than established religions, featuring events that are festive and fun, even if without a significant "message."
If with Messiah we must start, let's go to Dublin, but not the city of Handel's premiere of that seminal work in 1742, but Pleasanton's twin city in California. No need to wait until Christmas, this Messiah comes three weeks before the holiday. The venue is nearby Livermore, where the Pacific Chamber Symphony teams up with the Valley Concert Chorale for a performance of holiday music.

And now for something completely different: an interethnic holiday concert, for the opening of transPOP: Korea Vietnam remix, an exhibit featuring 16 artists from Vietnam and Korea, and "their respective diasporas in the United States." The concert, by Thomas' Apartment, presents — take a deep breath — an alternative-rock-pop creation fusing hard-driving riffs, euphoric melodies, and lyrical depth. How apt for the holidays!

Candlelight Concert, an annual holiday concert by the San Francisco State Chamber Singers, is directed by faculty conductors Vance George and David J. Xiques. George is the San Francisco Symphony Chorus' music director emeritus, and Todorov has won the 2006 Crystal Lyre Award, the highest honor for achievement in music and dance in his native Bulgaria.

Carols at the California (theater) features the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, presenting holiday favorites, traditional carols, audience sing-along, music from the Wurlitzer organ, and St. Francis in the Americas: a Caribbean Mass, accompanied by steel drums and percussion.

Time for Three (Zachary DePue, Nicolas Kendall, and Ranaan Meyer) is a classically trained trio of string musicians from the Curtis Institute who "transcend traditional performance genres," including arrangements of shorter classical works and popular hits alike. They are bringing works by Meyer, Lennon/McCartney, Bach, Unger, Monti, Brahms, Rouse, Monroe, and Cohen, along with traditional songs, to their mid-December Morrison Artists Series concert.

Pacific Mozart Ensemble welcomes winter with Brubeck and Brahms at holiday concerts in San Francisco and Berkeley. The program includes the West Coast premiere of Dave Brubeck's sacred work Canticles, which explores themes around the Virgin Mary and the birth of Christ, in both Latin and English; several seasonal Brubeck songs; plus Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes, accompanied by pianists Kymry Esainko and Andrea Liguori.

Stars of Wonder is the San Francisco Girls Chorus' holiday offering, traditional carols and audience sing-along. There is a smaller, 43-voice version in Berkeley, then the whole big show at Davies Symphony Hall with 300 voices, the Sonos Handbell Ensemble; and harp in the premiere of Christmas Morn by Eleanor Daley, plus works by Pergolesi, Mendelssohn, Holst, Pavel Chesnokov, Joan Szymko, Ko Matsushita, and Adolph Adam.